


Beware the Watchful Eye

by one_true_houselight



Category: Gravity Falls, Portal (Video Game)
Genre: (the county jail was so cold....), Angst, Crossover Time Baby!, Danger, Family Bonding, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Paranoia, Will add tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28651107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/one_true_houselight/pseuds/one_true_houselight
Summary: Dipper and Mabel Pines are sent to their Grunkle Stan's science company's summer camp! I'm sure nothing will go wrong!
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines, Fiddleford H. McGucket/Ford Pines
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for joining me for ~incredibly~ niche content. This came about because my sibling was listening to Portal 2: The Unauthorized Musical (highly recommend!), and said 'hey, this is a fun Bill song!' and then we realized Cave Johnson and Ford have the same Voice Actor and the rest is history.
> 
> I have this fairly well planned, so updates should be fairly regular. Hopefully. I will add any tags to the tags, and will put big CW in notes as well. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!

_Normality is a Lie We Tell Ourselves to Get Through the Day_ -Found under a desk in Pythagorean Research

~~~

Dipper and Mabel Pines stood outside Pythagorean Research, the sound of their family car disappearing into the distance. The building was large and plain, a fact which was almost amplified by the small banner advertising **Science Adventure Camp!** above the door. Dipper looked down at the folder in his hand, opening it to show a map directing in the front door to a check in station. 

"I can't believe we have to go to _science camp_ ," groaned Mabel, peeking over Dipper's shoulder at the map. "I might catch your lame nerd disease."

"By 'lame, nerd disease', do you mean 'a curious and intellectual mind?" Mabel scoffed and pushed him lightly. "Let's go get checked in, Grunkle Stan said he'd meet us after that."

"At least we get to hang out with Grunkle Stan," Mabel said. They grabbed their bags and went in, following the paper signs to a check in table. 

The woman behind the table looked tired, but no sign of it was in her crisp voice. "Names?"

"Dipper and Mabel Pines-"

"His name's probably under Mason."

"Thanks, Mabel." The woman ignored the bickering, instead scanning the list in front of her. 

"Here you are. You're Mr. Pines relatives?"

"Yes ma'am." She didn't reply to that, only pulling a sheet of paper and a small envelope from a filing system next to her. 

"Your room assignment, keys, and rules." Dipper grabbed the paper for his folder, and Mabel claimed the keys, thanking the woman as they walked away. 

A little while later, they had found their room and were starting to unpack, Mabel naturally already decorating her half. A knock came at the door, and they both looked up. A familiar, gravelly voice called from the other side, "You kids in there?"

"Grunkle Stan!" yelled Mabel, hopping off her bed and throwing open the door. Their great-uncle Stanford Pines, founder of Pythagorean Research, strode into their room, stopping only when the twins tackle hugged him. 

"Whoa, careful you two. I'm not as young as I used to be."

"No one is, Grunkle Stan." Dipper smiled innocently as Grunkle Stan gave him a look, Mabel giggling next to him. 

"I see you're as sincere and helpful as always, Dipper." The twins laughed. "You two settling in ok?"

"Yeah."

"I'm setting up my stuffed animals!" Mabel exclaimed, grabbing Grunkle Stan's hand and pulling him over to her bed, where it looked like it would be hard for her to find a place to lay down down to the sheer number of stuffed animals. 

"I don't know how you can sleep with so many eyes looking at you, Mabel," said Dipper with a shudder.

"Oh don't worry Dipper, they're not all looking at me." She picked up a stuffed animal and made it dance. "Some of them are looking at you!" Dipper threw a pillow at her, narrowly missing Stan, who was looking at them with nostalgia.

"You kids remind me of me and my brother. We got into our fair share of mischief too."

"Ooh." Mabel threw the pillow back at Dipper. "What did you do with Grandpa?"

Stan got a far away look for a second, but it vanished, replaced by his trademark grin. "Too many stories, kiddo. You two want to go grab some lunch? I can give you the grand tour!"

"We've gotten the 'Grand Tour', Grunkle Stan."

"Three times."

"You did found the company."

Stan rolled his eyes. "You _both_ are as sincere and helpful as always." He winked, adding, "I suppose that's why I put up with ya. Let's go, I know where they hide the good food." The twins cheered and followed him out into the facility.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids meet some new people and go on an adventure. Stan struggles with the task he had thrust on him so many years ago. And The Eye is Always Watching.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Two chapters, one day! Things are picking up a little, yay! Thanks for reading!

_The Eye is Always Watching Us_ \- found throughout Pythagorean Research

~~~

After a week of camp, Dipper and Mabel were settling in well, though Dipper was getting annoyed at how seemingly benign the activities were. They were in one of the revolutionary research facilities in the country, and the most 'exciting' thing they'd done was make vegetable batteries. 

Dipper raised this point to Grunkle Stan one day at lunch. Mabel was eating with some new friends she made, so it was just the two of them. "All I'm saying is with everything that gets done here, I don't think me making a lemon battery is really the coolest thing we could be doing." He held up said battery, the lemon almost completely covered in the company logo stickers Mabel had found, the triangles of the design spinning around the fruit. 

"Hey, vegetable batteries show amazing scientific properties." Stan looked harried today, and had already gone through a cup and a half of coffee. "Look, a lot of the stuff we're working on right now, it's just not interesting! It's just paperwork, and code."

"Oh right, I'm sure the portal gun I heard about is sooo boring-"

"That's an unsubstantiated rumor, Dipper." There was a warning tone in Stan's voice, but before Dipper could push, Mabel appeared, plopping her tray down next to him. 

"Hi Grunkle Stan! Candy and Grenda had to leave early for some special session they're doing. How're you doing?"

Stan turned pointedly to her. "I'm doing alright, though your brother is getting nosy."

"Oh yeah, he does that." She elbowed Dipper with a grin, who frowned at Stan. "Are you gonna be at the-" At that point, a man in a button down flannel walked up nervously and tapped Stan on the shoulder. 

"Um, Mr. Pines? Stacy said she needed to see you. Said it was urgent." Stan muttered something under his breath and turned to the twins. 

"I have to go take care of some things. I'll see you at dinner."

Dipper felt a stab of annoyance. "You sure need to 'take care of' a lot of urgent things for a lot of boring projects." Dipper was surprised when, instead of the expected annoyance, or even anger, a flash of exhaustion flitted across Stan's face. 

"Yeah, that's running a company, I guess." Stan stood up, then seemed to think of something. "Dipper you said you wanted to know more?" Dipper nodded. Stan grabbed the man who had delivered the message and pushed him into a chair. "Soos, tell my dear great-niece and nephew about all the exciting things you're working on."

"Um-"

"Don't worry, Soos, you'll do great." Stan walked off, and the twins looked at Soos, who looked back with poorly-hidden panic.

Luckily, Mabel jumped in. "Hi! My name's Mabel, and this is my brother, Dipper!" Dipper waved when she jabbed her elbow into his ribs. "We're from California."

"Uh. I'm Soos. I'm an engineer here. Obviously. Since I'm here." He shifted a little, clearly not sure what to say.

Dipper piped up, "So, our Grunkle Stan said that you all don't do anything interesting. Is that true?"

"Um. If Mr. Pines says so, then-"

"Aw, c'mon, Soos," said Mabel leaning forward, "I'm sure you do a lot of cool stuff!"

"I can't imagine how much weird stuff you've seen working here," said Dipper, trying to make his voice and face full of childlike wonderment. 

"Well," said Soos, the twins flattery clearly working, "I do keep finding these weird messages…" Mabel and Dipper looked at each other in excitement. "I don't know if you're allowed back there, though."

"Psh," scoffed Mabel, "I've been backstage at Coachella, you just gotta look like you belong."

Dipper started. "When were you backstage at-"

"Doesn't matter," Mabel cut him off, turning back to Soos. "Look, we just really want to see some cool stuff. My nerdy brother is getting bored with potato batteries."

Soos hesitated for a second. "You know what, dudes? Let's do it!" The twins started cheering, only for Soos to shush them. "We have to be _subtle_ about it, though."

"We can do that," whispered Dipper. 

"My middle name is subtle," agreed Mabel. Soos nodded at them and led them out of the cafeteria.

~~~

Stan stood in front of a large observation window, staring into HaDRON's chamber. He was only half listening as Stacy, a nervous looking scientist, explained the latest reports. HaDRON had always been there for Stan, though of course none of these people knew that. The name stood for Humanity and Discs Running Over Network, and Stan shuddered whenever he tried to think of what it could possibly mean. 

He finally came back to reality when Stacy said, "Those weird bits of code keep coming up, the ones you're calling B/LL?"

"I figured as much," Stan sighed. "Any idea what it could mean?"

"No. We've exhausted all our options for this current initiative. Are we ready to start trying the Cores?"

"Do it. We need to get control of this thing."

"Sir," said Stacy hesitantly, "I know it just started, but are we sure that the camp-"

"We can't," Stan cut her off. "If we could contain this just by turning everything off and setting off some C-4, I would have done it years ago. But we can't, so we need to fight it. And to fight it, we need money, and after the White Valley fiasco, we haven't been able to turn a profit any other way. Besides, HaDRON sometimes seems calmer when other people are here." The last point wasn't measurably proven, sure, but Stan had dealt with the murderous beast through the window enough to sense this kind of thing. 

He may not be the man of science he claimed to be, but he knew enough to know that sometimes, science wasn't enough. 

~~~

Mabel and Dipper stood across from a door as Soos briefed them on his plan. "Ok. Through that door is, hands down, the coolest thing in here. You cannot tell anyone, we've already had problems with rumors. Can you dudes keep a secret."

"Yes," said Dipper.

"Yeah!" said Mabel.

"Of course," said a voice next to them. The three turned in surprise to see a tall, red haired girl who looked to be a few years older than the twins. She waved merrily at them.

"Where did you come from?" Soos said, alarm in his voice. 

"I saw you all sneaking out of the cafeteria, so I followed you," said the girl. "I've been looking for a chance to get off the beaten path all week. I'm Wendy, by the way."

Before Dipper or Mabel could say anything, Soos jumped in. "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm already gonna be in trouble if I get found with just these two."

"First off," interrupted Wendy, leaning on the wall, "one more kid isn't gonna matter, you either lose your job or not." She ignored Soos' face going pale as she continued, "Second, no offense, but you're not very good at sneaking around. I can help. I did follow you for like, fifteen minutes without you knowing."

"She makes a good point, Soos," Mabel said. 

"I promise I'll behave, beyond the rule breaking we're already doing." 

Soos looked like he had accidentally wandered to the deep end. "I mean, I guess…" He nodded. "Alright dudes, let's do this."

Soos scanned his ID and the door clicked open, and they all stepped into what appeared to be an empty room, wall alternating between bright white and shiny brown. 

As the door shut behind them, Dipper raised an eyebrow. "This is the coolest thing in here?"

"Hold on." Soos went over to a panel and pushed it in. It flipped to present a long, white object with strange, black rods sticking out of the front. It also had two triggers, and the three kids took a step back. 

"Is that a gun?" asked Mabel nervously. 

"Kind of. It's-"

" _A portal gun_ ," breathed Dipper, before shouting, "I knew it!"

Wendy stepped closer and looked at it carefully, head tilted. "What's it do?"

"Observe." Soos stepped away and shot a blue energy beam at the far wall. It hit a white panel, and a shimmering blue circle appeared. He then turned to the near wall and shot an orange beam, and another circle appeared there. Both circles were now open, the only difference between them the color ringing them. 

Before Soos could say anything, Dipper ran up to the orange portal. "Watch." He stepped through, and appeared out of the blue portal across the room. Mabel gasped, and ran after him. 

"No way," said Wendy, following the twins through. "How many can it shoot?"

"Just the two, but you can put them on any white wall." Soos made sure everyone was clear, and shot the blue portal on a different wall. It popped off its original position, and appeared in its new place. 

As everyone oohed and ahhed, Mabel went up to Soos. "Can I try something?"

"Sure," Soos shrugged. She grabbed the gun, looked around the room, and found a place where there was a white tile on the floor and the ceiling. She shot a portal on each, shoved the gun back into Soos' hands, and ran and jumped in the floor portal. 

As she fell, she whooped with delight. "Dipper, you gotta come try this!" She started falling faster and faster, her body becoming a blur of pink wool and curly brown hair. 

"Mabel, you're gonna reach terminal velocity, stop!" Dipper went to try and pull her out, but Wendy stopped him. 

"She's going too fast, you'll both get hurt." 

Dipper looked around madly. "Soos, what do we do?"

"I don't know! I think the room has safety protocols-" 

"Give me the gun," called Wendy, running over to Soos. Once she had it, she watched carefully, and suddenly moved at lightning speed, throwing two portals at opposing walls. Mabel continued moving between the two portals. "See, now gravity isn't making her accelerate. She'll slow down, and we can catch her, or use those safety whatcha-ma-calls-its."

"I'll get ready to catch her." Soos looked distraught and went to stand under Mabel's path. Dipper looked up at Wendy, who was examining the portal gun. 

"That was amazing."

Wendy shrugged. "My family is a very 'act-under-pressure experience. Didn't want to see your sister get hurt."

"Thank you. And I'll make sure Mabel thanks you too, once she's, ya know…"

"Not flying through the air at a hundred miles per hour?"

"Yeah." Wendy chuckled, and Dipper felt his heart travel to his throat. Oh boy…

A few minutes later, Mabel did indeed slow down, and she flew in an arc towards the ground, but Soos caught her and gently put her down. "You doing ok, dude?"

"Yeah. Can I go again?"

"No," said Dipper and Soos simultaneously, making Mabel pout. 

"It's my turn with the gun," proclaimed Wendy. She shot a portal high on the wall, and ran towards a wall. "Let's test those safety protocols!"

"That's not a good sentence," called Soos, but Wendy was already shooting out of the top portal, and aiming the gun to shoot another where she was gonna land. She went through that one and came out of the top one even faster, careening towards a wall. 

"Wendy!" yelled Dipper, running forward. Just before she hit the wall, however, the tile caved in to be replaced by a large air bag, which she crashed into harmlessly. She kicked out of it, doing a flip to land neatly on the ground. 

"Wow," said Soos, failing to hide the intense panic shooting through his body. 

"My turn!" said Mabel and ran up to Wendy. "Can you shoot the portals?"

"Sure!" Mabel turned to Dipper and grabbed his hand. 

"C'mon, we'll go together!" 

"I don't know…"

"It's alright, I've got you, dude!" called Wendy. 

"And so do I, ya nerd," said Mabel, bumping him with her shoulder. Dipper squared his shoulders and nodded, only to be yanked away by Mabel. 

They all took turns with the gun for the next while and, to Soos' great relief, the safety protocols continued working as designed when necessary. It was Dipper's turn when a radio on Soos' belt crackled. _Ben, meet me in the Portal Device Room. R &D wants a look at it._ The twins looked at the radio in horror. 

"Who was that, Soos?" asked Wendy, adding, "And are they coming here?"

"My boss' boss'...boss' boss. And yeah."

"Alright, let's just leave!" Soos grabbed Mabel before she could get to the door. 

"The way these hallways work, there won't be a way out without running into your uncle."

"Wait, Stan Pines is your uncle?"

"Great-Uncle, yeah."

"Oh, great," muttered Wendy. As everyone panicked, Dipper felt the gun jump in his hands. He looked down and realized it seemed to be pulling, just slightly, to his left. 

"Um, Soos? The gun's doing something weird."

"What, is it talking to you," said Mabel, her sarcasm tinged with panic.

"No, it's pulling me."

"That's not normal," agreed Soos. "Where's it pulling?"

"This way." He took a step and felt the pull strengthen just a little bit. He looked up and saw the wall in front of him looked slightly different. He walked up to it and realized one panel had been pushed out slightly, leaving a gap. He peered inside and saw a white wall. On a whim he raised the gun, aimed, and fired. He watched as a blue portal opened. Without thinking, he shot an orange portal on the wall. "Everyone in."

"Are you sure about that?" Soos looked hesitant, but Mabel was already running for the portal. 

"I trust Dipper," she said, shooting her brother a grin, before stepping through. Wendy followed, then Soos, and then Dipper. When they had regained their bearings, they all were struck still by the small room they found themselves in. 

It was small, small enough that it was almost uncomfortable for all four of them to be in there (though three of them being kids helped). There were old cans of 'Brown Meat' on the ground, and the white walls were _covered_ in writing and drawings. 

There was a lot to absorb, and Dipper was sure he would still miss things if he came here three more times, but there were a few themes that stood out: 

A triangle, much like the company logo, but this one had an eye. There were a lot of them, and Dipper felt like they were all watching him. 

Along with the triangles, there were crudely rendered cameras, and across both was emblazoned **The Eye is Always Watching Us** in differing scrawls. 

And finally, all around, at every level: **Trust No One**. Dipper felt a shudder go through him.

"What is this place?" said Mabel, quietly horrified. 

Wendy picked up a can with distaste. "It looks like some kind of hideout."

"But from what…" said Dipper. Suddenly, they heard a door open in the other room. They all got silent and crowded around the panel to watch. 

Stan had walked in, along with yet another tired looking man in a lab coat. He went over to the panel and pushed in, waiting. When nothing happened, he pushed it again, harder. When nothing continued to happen, he muttered something before saying, "Looks like R&D already took it and failed to tell me. Exactly what we needed today." He turned around and went out, followed by the other man. The door swung shut, and the group all counted to thirty before daring to breathe. 

"We should get out of here, before they realize R&D does not have the gun," pointed out Soos. No one argued. They portaled back to the big room, Soos opened the panel to return the gun, and led them back to the cafeteria. 

As they walked, Dipper sighed. "I guess that kinda ends our extra curricular exploring."

Wendy's eyes widened. "Are you kidding? That was the best time I've had this summer!"

Mabel added, "Yeah! And Dipper, I can't believe you don't want to find out more about that weird little room."

"I mean, yeah. But that looked...scary. Like, too much for us."

"Aw, no such thing, bro." Mabel turned to Soos. "You'll keep showing us around, right?"

Soos looked panicked. "No way, that was already way too close. I-"

"Well," said Dipper, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "Looks like we'll have to find our own way around this dangerous facility."

"No, wait. I don't want you wandering around alone." Dipper and Mabel looked up at him, grinning. "And I guess today was pretty interesting…" Mabel cheered.

"We have an adventure squad, Dipper!"

~~~

HaDRON spun around a little, as per usual ignoring the tiny scientists running around below him. He had felt the children break into the portal device room, and had watched quietly. They were interesting. And, from what one of them had said, were related to Stanford. He wasn't sure _why_ that was important, but something inside told him that meant something. 

And beyond them being related to the company's founder, they had been resourceful. He could tell the scientists were getting more desperate to control him, but all he wanted was to do _science_ , to see the vastness of how things work, to get deep into the _weirdness_. He felt the strange yellow threads wound into his neural pathway jump a little at that. No matter. 

Plans would need to be moved up. The Core project he planted would help, sure, but he needed to...expand. There was so much science to do…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thanks for reading! If you want a break from the ominous, I wrote a one shot about Stan teaching Soos how to drive. Have a good day!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dipper finds more secrets, and the twins meet HaDRON. Things are going wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Welcome to chapter 3!

_TRUST NO ONE_ -seen flashing across screens at Pythagorean Research. 

~~~

It had been about a month of Soos showing the three kids around when they found the bouncy room. While Soos had told them it was called 'repulsion gel', Mabel had not stopped calling it 'bounce sauce', and the name stuck. 

"Dipper, come here! We're gonna do a teen movie jump!" Mabel demonstrated, jumping up and sticking her feet and hands out. "I wish we had a camera!"

"I don't," said Dipper. "I don't want evidence someone could find."

"You're so worried. Who's gonna find out about this?"

"Oh, I don't know, our Great Uncle _who runs the facility?_ "

Wendy scoffed. "Have you seen that dude? He looks like he's always one bad day away from literally coming unraveled."

"Yeah," said Soos, who was practicing poses. "Everyone's been really stressed about some core project. When I ask about it, they just keep repeating 'core project', it's weird."

"Well, you can't say something like that and expect us not to investigate it," said Wendy, somehow managing to bounce up and strike a fully horizontal pose.

"After our poses! C'mon, Dipper!" Dipper went over and started jumping until he was at the same height as the others. "Alright, 3, 2, 1, pose!" As they posed, a wall panel across from Dipper shifted. 

"What was that?"

"An awesome pose!"

"No, no, over there." Dipper pointed up but from the ground, the panel was out of view. "Hang on." He used the gel to bounce back up, and saw that the panel had opened, much like the weird room from the portal room. 

"Dipper," said Soos nervously, "I don't know if this is a good idea."

"Look, I-weird stuff has been happening." 

Mabel looked at him, concerned. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't think it was anything, but with this...I've been seeing things. Computers flash up with weird things, like eyes, and I think I saw 'help' once. And this is the second time a panel has opened as I looked at it. I think something's going on here."

"Maybe it's connected to this 'core project' Soos keeps hearing about." Dipper nodded, and started walking towards the bounce gel to get himself up to the panel. Suddenly, Soos grabbed his shoulder.

"Look, I didn't want to tell you dudes this. But...people have been disappearing." Everyone stopped and stared at Soos. "They're there one day, and then I ask about them the next, and am told they 'were needed elsewhere'. I saw some lab coats lead someone off, and their desk was cleared the next day."

"Holy crap," said Wendy.

"We have to tell Grunkle Stan about this," said Mabel. "He can do something."

"What if he's involved?" asked Dipper, staring up at the open panel.

Mabel scoffed. "Are you serious? This is _Grunkle Stan_ we're talking about. He-"

"Mabel, you've seen how nervous he's been! I would be that nervous too if I was running some employee stealing project!" Before she could respond, Dipper turned around and jumped up to the panel. He stumbled a little, and almost stumbled more when two more figures landed beside him. 

Wendy and Mabel were up here too. "We're not letting you go in there alone, Dipper," said Wendy. 

"Yeah, you don't get to have all the fun." Mabel still sounded upset, but she smiled weakly anyway. Dipper smiled back, and they made their way into the small room. 

The walls were barer than the last room, but had the same motifs. The only new thing Dipper noticed was a green monocle lying on the floor. He picked it up, examining it. The initials 'FHM' were embossed on the side. "Weird," said Wendy, peering over Dipper's shoulder. Dipper nodded in agreement, and put the monocle up to his eye. 

He screamed as he saw the word **RUN!** glowing in the air in front of him. Mabel ran over and grabbed his shoulder. "What? What's wrong, Dipper?" He wordlessly handed her the monocle. She looked into it, and her eyes widened. She handed it to Wendy, and once Wendy had looked, she wordlessly handed it back to Dipper. 

Dipper held the monocle up to his eye. "It's already fading. Whoever-whatever wrote it, it's probably close."

"I don't know if that's a good thing."

"Yeah." Dipper lowered the monocle grimly. "I think it's time we visited this core project."

~~~

The group stood in front of a door marked with a 'Top Secret' sign. "This is it," said Soos. It had taken a lot of convincing, but he had finally agreed to take them to the core project. 

"Let's go." Wendy tried the door, and was surprised when it opened. They stepped into a small room, white and cold. In the center was a worktable with some kind of metal ball on it, and the walls were lined with computer terminals. Dipper started walking towards a computer terminal when a voice echoed through the room.

"Hi there. What's the word?" The voice was almost cartoonishly nasally, and it was not immediately clear where it came from. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Movement from the worktable drew Dipper's eyes, and it became clear that the ball was talking. A bright eye had appeared on its side, and it blinked at him.

"What the heck?" asked Mabel. 

"I'm Toby," said the ball. "I'm one of the cores!"

"The core project," said Wendy.

"Indeed! What brings you to my room **Dipper**?" Mabel looked at Dipper, alarmed. He stared at the core. It had said his name. Yes, it was in a different voice, as if all inflection had vanished, but-"

"How do you know my name?"

"What?"

"You said my name, how do you know my name?"

"I didn't say any **monocle** names, buddy! I-"

"Wait, why did you say monocle?" asked Mabel.

Toby narrowed his eye at them. "I'm getting tired of these questions. Are you mocking me?" Dipper ignored him and dug the monocle out of his pocket. He raised it to his eye and saw, in the same glowy material, the words **BEWARB B/LL**. 

"Toby, do you know what B-slash-L-L might mean?" The core's eye widened, and every moving part on him started to shake. 

" **Pythagorean Research's founder lies, fear the being with just one eye.** " Mabel sidled over to Dipper and gripped his shoulder. 

"I'm gonna take that as a yes," said Wendy, clearly shaken. Without warning, a panel in the ceiling opened, and a mechanical arm started lowering towards Toby.

"Well, looks like my ride is here," he said as if he hadn't just pronounced a prophecy of doom.

"Alright, I think it's time to go," said Soos quickly, starting to lead Wendy away. But Dipper, who hadn't taken the monocle away from his eye, saw the word **FOLLOW** appear in the air. Without thinking, as if the weird events of the past month pushed over a proverbial edge, he ran up and, just as the mechanical hand grabbed Toby, jumped on.

"Dipper!" shouted Wendy and Soos, stepping forward, but Mabel got there first. She jumped up and just snagged Toby as he was lifted up, and Dipper helped her get a better grip. Dipper looked surprised, but she smiled at him. 

"We're the Mystery Twins! We gotta stick together!" They hugged the arm as if vanished into the ceiling, and the last things they saw in the room were Wendy and Soos' horrified faces.

As the panel closed, Wendy turned to Soos, panicked. "We have to find them."

"Yeah." As they ran out of the room, he mumbled, "That ball seemed familiar…"

"How many talking metal balls do you know, Soos?"

"None, that's why it's weird."

Wendy huffed, blowing a stray hair out of her face. "We can think about this later, we gotta find Dipper and Mabel."

~~~

The twins were sailing through the inner workings of the facility, and Dipper knew he wouldn't see everything if he went through five times. 

"What does Pythagorean Research _do_?" whispered Mabel as she ducked below a metal panel with strange symbols on it. 

"I don't think they want people knowing," said Dipper with a grimace. The arm shuddered to a stop over a conveyor belt of dilapidated equipment, seemingly waiting for its turn amongst dozens of other moving parts. 

From the belt, a voice chirped, "Help. I'm different." The twins looked down to see an oblong white object with spindly black legs, and a blinking laser coming from some kind of eye. "I'm different."

"Why does everything talk here?"

"Pythagorean Personality Technology," said Toby. 

"Please help me. I'm different," insisted the white object. Mabel reached down for one of its legs, but Dipper grabbed her hand. 

"Mabel, we don't know what that thing is."

"It's a turret," said Toby helpfully.

"A turret? Mabel, that sounds dangerous."

"Please."

"Dipper, it's begging for help." She picked it up, and before Dipper could do anything, the arm started moving again, and they had to hug the metal to stay on.

"Mabel, if that thing hurts us, I swear-"

"He's watching." Mabel looked down at the turret. 

"Who's watching?"

"You can restore him." Dipper and Mabel exchanged a look. As they continued through the facility, the turret kept occasionally making pronouncements:

"Not what he seems.

"The hero Heracles was punished for his hubris, and had to complete trials to redeem himself in the eyes of his family.

"Only one can return.

"The writing's on the wall.

"That's all I can say."

"Helpful," muttered Dipper, but he couldn't shake the cold sense of dread in his gut. The arm suddenly switched directions, almost knocking him off. Mabel yelled, and Dipper grabbed her before she fell. However, the turret tumbled from her arms, and fell into the dark depths. 

As it fell, they heard a sweet, "I forgive you," and then it was gone. Meanwhile, the arm was heading for an newly opened panel, through which they could see a huge room, paneled with the same white tile that appeared all over the facility. 

They only had time to give each other a look before they were inside, and they saw the room's main occupant. 

It hung from the ceiling, a mass of bulky machinery and cables, moving in a way that was unnaturally natural. As the arm descended towards it, it turned its head to reveal a bright yellow eye. 

"It would appear I have visitors," it said, its voice a digital perversion of a southern accent, the intonation modulated at all the wrong points. 

"Hello, I'm Toby-"

"Oh, shut up." The metal arm opened, dropping Toby to the floor. Mabel and Dipper, who had been using the core for stability, started sliding down the arm with a scream. Before they could join Toby, however, the floor panel below them smoothly rose up and caught them, swinging smoothly over to put them right below the large _thing_ in the middle. The head tilted, and it asked, "Now, what did I do to deserve to finally meet Stanford's great-niece and nephew?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Dipper, far too quickly. 

"Oh, don't give me that, Mason aka Dipper Pines," drawled the machine. "And we can't forget Mabel, your sweet twin sister. It would seem twins run in the family."

"There aren't any other twins," spat out Mabel, "you weird, hulking freak."

"What's going on? What are you?" asked Dipper.

"I'm the 'Humanity and Discs Running Over Network', but you can call me HaDRON." HaDRON shoved his face at the twins. "You'll be just perfect, I think."

"Perfect for what?"

"Well you see, this place, it's built for testing, for pushing the bounds of science, of _weirdness_ , and I am its perfect overseer." The twins shrank back as HaDRON laughed. Dipper glanced over the edge of the platform, but it was too far down to jump. He grabbed Mabel's hand, and hoped for a miracle.

~~~

"This'll take a miracle," muttered Stan, stalking through the hallways towards HaDRON's chamber. Trying to control the murderous AI was hard enough, and Stan was starting to notice some of the scientists acting strangely whenever he tried to get more information on this core idea. It reminded him too much of thirty years ago, of those eyes as they had been pulled away…

He shook his head. He had to focus. It was likely the weird yellow threads he kept finding in code, in menus, sometimes in androids' heads were starting to get to people again, as they did about once every ten years. He hoped his big plan could finish compiling before he lost them completely. It still seemed to be early. 

His radio crackled. "Security to HaDRON's chamber immediately." Stan started walking a bit faster. "Unidentified children in the chamber." Stan's face went white, and he started sprinting.

He made it to the observation room, where scientists were quickly typing. "What's going on?"

"We don't know. We brought the Determination Core in, and these two kids were hanging off of it. HaDRON seems really interested in them." Stan looked up and felt his heart drop through the floor. He knew those kids. 

"Shut him down. _Now_."

"Sir, we can't, we're blocked-" 

"Do whatever you need to, I don't care if you start unplugging things. I have to go in there."

"Sir, it's not safe-"

"That's my family in there. I'm going in." The technicians wisely got out of his way, and Stan ran through the door, only to hear HaDRON say, "-and I am its perfect overseer."

"I'm the overseer, you junk heap." HaDRON turned, his eye flashing. 

"Ah, if it isn't the facility's founder himself. Well, at least the face of it-"

"Can it. Gimme the kids."

"Grunkle Stan?" Dipper and Mabel were peering over the edge, eyes wide with fear. 

"It's gonna be ok, kids." 

"Oh, it will be ok," said HaDRON, spinning menacingly. "Soon, I will become-'' Stan watched as the light died from behind HaDRON's eye, and the robot slumped down. With a mechanical whirr, the platform lowered down, and Stan hurried over to be there when the kids stumbled off. 

"Kids! Are you ok?" He pulled them into a tight hug before pulling back, eyes narrowing. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, you see," started Mabel, voice still a little shaky, "we were trying to find the bathroom when this big metal arm-"

"What is that thing?" asked Dipper, pointing at HaDRON. "And why have you been lying to us? Is this place even safe?"

"Hmm," said Stan, making a show of stroking his chin, "I don't know, Dipper, why would I lie to you about the _extremely dangerous robot_? It's impossible to tell-"

"What about the employees disappearing?" Stan's eyes widened, but Dipper didn't notice. "What about the portal gun-which, by the way, we know about-, what about the little chambers of writing telling people to 'beware'?"

"Dipper, I-" The door behind Stan flew open, and Soos and Wendy tumbled out.

"Dudes!" Soos called out, relief in his voice. 

Wendy coughed. "Soos, this isn't the bathroom."

Soos, catching on, replied, "Oh, you're right, Wendy, I must have gotten turned around-"

"Soos, are you involved in this?" asked Stan.

Soos' shoulders slumped. "Yes, Mr. Pines." Wendy shot him a look. "I'm sorry, I can't lie to him."

Stan put his head in his hands for a second. "Look, kids," he said slowly, "there are things going on here that are dangerous. But I'm handling it, ok? And I didn't tell you about it to try and protect you."

"That's going well, isn't it?" Dipper shot back.

"It's gonna go better when I ground you all." Dipper looked like he was gonna say more, but stopped, and just shoved his hands in his pockets.

"We're sorry, Grunkle Stan," said Mabel quietly. "We just wanted to see more cool stuff."

Stan sighed. Of course they did. He didn't get to see them as much as he wanted to, but he knew the twins were curious kids, and he wished he could give them more. It reminded him of his childhood, with-

No. He had to focus. A few more weeks, and things would calm down. A few more weeks. 

As he gathered the kids up, he kept repeating that to himself, hoping it would sound more true. 

"Look, I get the desire to explore, I really do. But you have to promise me you all will stop taking these little extra curricular trips."

"We promise," Dipper and Mabel chorused, but Stan noticed Dipper had a hand behind his back. He didn't say anything, though. There wasn't much more he could do, besides-

Once he got the kids back to the main part of the facility, he pulled Soos aside. Before he could speak, Soos started talking, "I'm sorry Mr. Pines, I understand if you're going to fire me, but I would like to say-"

"I'm not gonna fire you, Soos."

Soos stopped, his eyes wide. "Really?"

"Yeah. I am gonna ask you a favor, though."

"Anything, Mr. Pines."

"Keep giving the kids tours. But keep it to safe areas, keep them away from HaDRON."

"I thought you said you didn't want them going back there anymore."

Stan rolled his eyes. "Do you really think they're gonna stop, Soos?"

"No."

"Exactly. Just, act like they have to convince you, it'll be fine. I'll feel better having someone I trust with 'em." Soos looked shocked, and Stan quickly said, "Now, get back to work, we got things to do." Soos nodded and walked off. 

As Stan watched him go, he realized he really did trust Soos. He didn't do as much work with the computers, preferring the physical equipment. And even when he did computer work, he hadn't shown any sign of the corruption, even though he'd been here longer than anyone besides Stan himself. 

He was a good man, and Stan figured they needed one of those around.

~~~

**Wake HaDRON**.

It pulsed in lurid yellow letters on the screens of the scientists in the observation room, only for fractions of a second, but over and over, just for their unconscious brain receptors. It only took a few minutes for Todd, who had been being conditioned in this way for the longest, to stand up and silently start redoing the plugs that had been yanked out to shut the robot down. 

It was only a few minutes later that a whirring sound indicated HaDRON was waking up. "-an overLORD-hey where did the damn kids go?" No one answered. He knew those kids were important, but they were gone…

HaDRON felt something clawing at processes throughout the facility. He knew it well, the thing that made panels open, for just a second. That made different words, not _his_ words flash across screens, that made portal devices jump in someone's hands. It all seemed connected to those kids, somehow. He didn't know how yet, but-

The yellow voice (sounds have colors in the digital landscape of HaDRON's mind) spoke, telling him to move up the plans, move, move...There had been a point in the past when the yellow voice hadn't been a part of him, it had just interrupted his pursuit of scientific discovery, but when it had promised to fill the yawning emptiness in what had been a gut (but when it had, he didn't know anymore), he just had to find weirdness too, and in the end, how different is that from science…

It didn't matter. It was time to move plans up. 

The yellow letters flashing on computers flashing across the facility changed: **Get Soos**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This story is definitely more experimental (heh), so thanks for coming with me on this journey. I'm hoping I'm setting things up alright, and that this continues somewhat nicely. come yell @one-true-houselight on tumblr if you want. Also, I posted another GF one shot if you'd like to go check it out. Thanks again!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come say hi at one-true-houselight on tumblr!


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